Wednesday, November 21, 2012Last Update: 10:25 AM PT

Four Years for Threatening a Lawyer

ST. LOUIS (CN) - A man who sent an attorney photos of the lawyer's family with crosshairs placed on their foreheads was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison. Alireza Bakhtiari, 36, pleaded guilty in August to attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, but later recanted much of his admission. U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber gave Bakhtiari a longer sentence because he found him to be untruthful during the proceedings, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Prosecutors said Bakhtiari sent an email to a lawyer, B.H., that contained pictures of the lawyer's family with large crosshairs superimposed over their foreheads. Police focused on Bakhtiari after Bakhtiari pulled a rifle on a colleague of B.H.'s who went to Bakhtiari's house three days after the email was sent. The colleague was there to collect potential evidence in a civil suit Bakhtiari had filed against one of B.H.'s clients. Prosecutors said Bakhtiari sent the email to deter B.H. from finding out that the documents upon which Bakhtiari based his civil case were forged. Bakhtiari, a former chemist with St. Louis' water department, told the Post-Dispatch that he thought the email was sent from somebody in city government, to retaliate against him for being a whistleblower. Bakhtiari is no stranger to trouble. Prosecutors said at least six women have complained to police that Bakhtiari pressured them into removing their clothes and made aggressive sexual advances during fake interviews for modeling jobs.